Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5 eSATA USB External Enclosure Review

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Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5 eSATA USB External Enclosure Review

Written by David Bremer

Article Index
Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5 eSATA USB External Enclosure Review
Specifications
Testing
Final Thoughts
All Pages

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Hey Folks! Today were going to take a look at a great product from Sunbeamtech. This is the Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5” eSATA/USB External Enclosure, Model #EN-AIR-ES3-EU-BK. This enclosure from Sunbeamtech has some great features and a fantastic capacity. It also has a cool Blue LED fan! (In case you haven’t guessed, I like Blue LED fans). So lets jump right in and see how this sleek unit specs out!

Provided by: Sunbeamtech
Price: $33.99 Newegg

Closer Look:

Well Folks, it appears we have a well build device here in the Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5” eSATA/USB External Enclosure. This enclosure is a sturdy aluminum housing that appears to be able to take a moderate amount of abuse. The Sunbeamtech company also included lots of necessary accessories for this device.

Lets start by taking a look at the packaging.

On the front of the box we can see a good view of the Sunbeamtech Airbox
3.5” eSATA/USB External Enclosure. We also see that this device will
take up to a 1.5TB (or 1500GB) HDD. They tout the “Superior cooling” and
the 80mm Blue LED fan.

Here is a side panel view that shows the Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5”
eSATA/USB External Enclosure’s specifications. Everything you need to
know about this unit is on the side of the box.

In this last picture of the packaging we get a good look at the many
features of the Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5” eSATA/USB External Enclosure.

Ok, here is our first look of the Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5” eSATA/USB
External Enclosure with all the included extras fresh out of the box. Everything you need is included (except your own SATA HDD). You need a screwdriver to put it all together? This has it. You need the four screws to secure the hdd? This has it. Need the SATA or USB cables? Here they are. You even get a nifty plastic tie that you can wrap around your finger to remember that quart of milk your wife asked you to pick up from the store!

Looking straight on at the Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5” eSATA/USB External
Enclosure you can see the lens for the LED light that tells you the drive
is accessing.

Here is a side view showing that 80mm fan that keeps this unit nice and
cool under even the most strenuous of usage.

And here you get a good look at the back of this unit. We can see both
the eSATA and USB ports, the power port, and two buttons. One of these
is to power on and off the unit of course, the other is to turn off the
blue LED lights on the fan.

Lets check out some specs and features, shall we?

Features:

LED fan with On/Off switch for the LED
Cooling fan can increase the longevity of the hard drive by decreasing the operating temperature by 10*C
Hot-Swappable: Plug and Play without rebooting
Aluminum housing helps to quickly dissipate heat
Supports up to 1.5 TB hard drives
Compact design for easy portability
Supports eSATA and USB 2.0 interfaces

Supported OS:

Windows 2000(SP4)/ME(SP2)/XP/VISTA
Linux 2.4.1.0 or higher
MAC OS 8.6 or higher

Maximum transfer rate:

eSATA: Up to 3.0Gbps
USB 2.0: Up to 480Mbps

Specifications:

Color: Black
Interface: USB2.0 and eSATA
Supported drive size: 3.5” SATA I/II
Material: Aluminum (except front/back panels and thermal relief holes)
Maximum transfer rate: eSATA: Up to 3.0Gbps; USB 2.0: Up to 480Mbps
Fan Speed 1600RPM +/- 10%
Front indicator Light:
Power on: steady blue light
Disk access: flashing blue light
Power Adapter: 100V – 240V
Dimensions: 203(L) x 126(W) x 44(H)mm
Weight: 435g

On to Testing.

Testing:

Testing rig:

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4Ghz LGA 65W Dual Core
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel
Memory: 2–OCZ Gold GX XTC (2x512MB) 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400
2-Corsair XMS2 CM2X1024-6400C4 1GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM
Video Cards: Sapphire HD 2600 XT x2 in Crossfire configuration
Power Supply: Thermaltake Purepower 600W
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS
Optical Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc 2MB Cache E-IDE / ATAPI
OS: Windows XP Home SP3
Hard drive in enclosure: Western Digital 1600JD-75HBB0

Results:

Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5 eSATA/USB External Enclosure	USB	eSATA	Ultra ULT40273 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure
Average Transfer Rate	16.3 MB/sec	46.7 MB/sec	33.2 MB/sec
Access Time	20.8 ms	20.5 ms	15.5 ms
Burst Rate	17.2 MB/sec	98.1 MB/sec	17.8 MB/sec
CPU Usage	7.90%	3.90%	3.30%

As you can see the Sunbeamtech Airbox gives a respectable performance on
USB. It blows the competition away when USB is compared to the eSATA
speeds.

Sunbeamtech Airbox 3.5 eSATA/USB External Enclosure	USB	eSATA	Ultra ULT40273 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure
10 MB	1	0.6	1
100 MB	6.3	2.9	3.5
500 MB	28.5	9.5	17

The real time data transfer test using a stopwatch shows the Sunbeamtech Airbox doesn’t perform quite as well as a similar enclosure, but is far and above the better box when comparing the eSATA speeds to the USB speeds.

Conclusion.

Final Thoughts:

What makes Sunbeamtech Airbox a great drive is its hot-swappability on
eSATA. It’s fast, easy to use, sleek, and looks cool. High marks for this drive. It doesn’t hurt that it comes with everything you need to set up and run. Take off the plastic stand and you can shove this in your backpack or briefcase and when you need it just lay it on its side. Use it at home with the eSATA cable and on the go with your laptop using the USB cable.

Pros: